


Fragment: In the long days of Darkness

by losselen (zambla)



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/F, Poetry, Sappho - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-23 08:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3761926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zambla/pseuds/losselen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fragment of a poem for Ancalimë, from a poetess who loved her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fragment: In the long days of Darkness

_Found in the personal notes of Barahir with the following note on the margin:  
_

Ancalimë, in her long reign as the Ruling Queen of Númenor, called for women of learning and art to live at her court, where they held weekly symposia and Ancalimë sought much of their council. There, she was loved by the poetess Haleth, named for the chieftain of the Haladin, and some fragments of her poems to Ancalimë survive to this day.

   
_Translated into Westron from the original Adûnaic._

 

…in the long days of Darkness  
ere raised were  
the ridged turfs of Tarmasundar  
or strewn were flower-pennants on the marbles in Armenelos  
and the young Sun ambled in the  
wide sky of Beleriand

Long ago,  
when the Noldorin host scattered  
before the Dragon-fire that flew on Ard-galen  
and fire fell like dew on the Sirion  
and all burned like tinder

who knew better the price of love  
than Lúthien herself,  
alone in the dark silent hall,  
fairer than the fairest jewel?

O they say,  
the hands of the Valar are in the wind and meadows  
the rain and the years;

they are not wrong, but who lives  
in my unlit mind  
and lets fall my tears

and who lives in the love that shakes like a fire—

Ancalimë, thou who live in this hall;  
Ancalimë, you who are queen—

What jewel would I give,  
when the armies of the heart have been routed utterly  
and its ships burn in their retreat

to stay the glance of your regard  
or hold for a moment  
some wild joy on your face

 

**Author's Note:**

> [Its real inspiration, of course, are the Sapphic fragments, especially Fragment 16.]


End file.
